Friday, August 21, 2009

Brian: Pictures say a thousand words, eh? Well, scrimmage #2 is in the books and all eyes are on the Eagles' anemic offense but most importantly, the quarterback competition. During Wednesday's scrimmage, Shinskie and Marscovetra winded up taking a majority of the snaps. Was there improvement? Well, I guess slight improvement? Here are the respective lines of our freshman quarterback candidates:

David Shinskie (Fr.) - 9 for 16, 127 yards, 1 INT

Michael Marscovetra (Fr.) - 6 for 11, 43 yards, 1 INT

The Eagles offense didn't find the end zone until the last play of the scrimmage, when Marscovetra handed off to Jeff Smith for a three yard TD run. For those keeping track at home, here are the combined QB stats from scrimmages 1 and 2.

David Shinskie (Fr.) - 12 for 24, 149 yards, 2 INT

Michael Marscovetra (Fr.) - 11 for 17, 58 yards, 2 INT

Codi Boek (Jr.) - 4 for 6, 15 yards

Justin Tuggle (RS Fr.) - 2 for 6, 9 yards, 1 INT

Yikes! So two questions Jeff. Who do you think will emerge from the QB competition between Shinskie and Marscovetra? And what should Spaziani and the Eagles do with Justin Tuggle, who has been relegated to 3rd in Spaz's QB pecking order.

Jeff: First, Tuggle is a redshirt freshman who, if he is the number 3 man, should hold a clipboard and like it. The only question of "what do you do with this guy?" relates to Marscovetra who is the only person being considered to redshirt. The potential redshirting of Marscovetra might also be reason why he saw so many snaps in the scrimmage. In a way, right now, Spaz and the staff need to learn more about Marscovetra than any other quarterback on the team.

Brian: Are you getting concerned that without a quantum leap forward, what we've heard from the two summer scrimmages is what we are going to get come September 5?

Jeff: You have to be concerned since Spaz's quotes and sound bytes make it sound like he is disappointed with the QB play so far. He had expectations when he offered these two freshman scholarships and he's been around the Heights long enough that his expectations should be realistic. Spaz being disappointed is not a good sign for the Eagles. However, Shinskie is averaging 12.4 yards per completion over the first two scrimmages, and that seems decent to me purely from a statistical standpoint. You have to consider that the first-team defense he was up against is much stronger than the second-team defense. So at this point, I feel that Shinskie is clearly the heavy favorite to emerge as starter.

Brian: It's a good thought but the injury bug has already hit ACC teams fairly hard this summer. I'd imagine injuries would be even more prevalent if you scrimmaged a Harvard, New Hampshire, UMass or Rhode Island, no?

Brian: As the only goalie signed for the class of 2014 and reportedly one of the best goalie prospects in the country, yes. Definitely. Especially since he lives in Maine and plays for the EJHL's New Hampshire Monarchs.

Jeff: Yes. Unlike previous years, there are a couple of teams that have just enough preseason hype that a 10-2 type record could get them in without winning the ACC Championship Game. Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami Fla. ...

Brian: Good thing. You want Syracuse to turn in a respectable performance this season so BC isn't criticized for weak scheduling next season, and apparently Paulus is the Orange's best option this season. Also good that Paulus won't be around next season and Syracuse will turn to yet another green QB.

Brian: The Sun Bowl unanimously chose to take the 5th best ACC team for the years 2010-13 over the Big East offer (the conference's 3rd best team or Notre Dame). Is this a blow to the Big East?

Jeff: Well, in all reality, Notre Dame would not fall to the Sun Bowl often so it was a great business decision by them to take an NC State or Clemson type team with a good fan base. The Sun Bowl will also get the occasional FSU or Virginia Tech appearance over having Rutgers or Pitt play annually with hopes of Notre Dame falling into their slot. But, this is yet another indication that it's laughable how somethinkBC shouldhave stayed in the Big East.

Brian: Sorry, BCMike, but true Eagles only drink Bud Light whilst tailgating. Or Busch Light, if you are strapped for cash.

Brian is on an international recruiting school trip next week so aside from a few season preview posts written this week, you will be in Jeff's hands. Who will play LeBatard ("BAM!") to Brian's MW next week?

8 comments:

I had a civil back and forth via e-mail with DC over the last 2 days. For someone who won't talk about the issue, he sure kept going at it with me. Let me know if you guys are interested in the transcript. Or maybe I'll just post it here.

"When you want to learn about baseball, you turn to Joe Morgan. When you want to learn about basketball, you turn to Digger Phelps. When you want to learn about college football, you turn to Mark Blaudschun. No one pieces together fragments of thought into a mosaic of traditional wisdom the way Mr. Blaudschun does. A skill that would serve Mr. Blaudschun well on the national stage, broadcasters! Luckily, we Bostonians benefit from the national media's oversight.

Aspiring sports journalists, take notes from this article. Mr. Blaudschun didn't get distracted by the fact that an intra-team scrimmage is, by definition, a zero-sum game. If your defense is strong, your offense is weak, and vice versa. You have to look beyond that to get to what matters, which is that it's time for BC to pay for all the luck they have had the past 11 years in surpassing preseason expectations.

Also, the BC website writers might want to learn something from Mr. Blaudschun about focusing on a main idea. Look, all of us who know something about college football realize BC is going to be terrible this year. They collapsed in the preseason rankings LAST year, but got lucky throughout the season and held hostage yet AGAIN an ACC Championship Game slot that should have rightfully gone to FSU or Clemson. Mr. Blaudschun's writeup here focuses on the negative, which is what we all expect this year with BC. The BC website might want to note that Mr. Blaudschun wisely ignored Shinskie's two completions to Gunnell for 38 and 31 yards, as well as Jarvis's catch for 37 yards. That doesn't fit the "main idea" that BC will be terrible, as we know from media expectations and BC's recruiting rankings. Take a lesson from Blaudschun, Phelps, Herbstreit, and the others who, you know, MATTER in the world of college athletics commentary. You don't change your agenda to fit the facts, you change the FACTS to fit your AGENDA. Well done, Sir, well done!"